Exactly how it will behave is something of a mystery, but one thing is clear – the coastal storm that moved into New Jersey late Wednesday isn’t going anywhere.

The storm is parked to New Jersey’s south and is expected to pinwheel showers through the Garden State through at least Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. But while New Jersey could certainly use a good soaking - the state has been drier than normal for two months - the storm’s opening performance was lackluster.

Only extreme southern New Jersey had received more than an inch of rain from the event by late this evening.

“It’s going to be very disappointing if we come out of this without an inch or two of rain across a goodly part of the state,” said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. "But it's possible."

There remains a chance that could change as the storm lingers through the weekend, forecasters said, but the chilly, raw conditions seen today are a more firm guarantee.

“It’s definitely not going to be a steady rain event, it’s going to be more periods of rain,” said Valerie Meola, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. “It’s going to be cloudy, drizzly, kind of misty much of the time. We’re not really going to be seeing the sun much at all.”

Fortunately, the Jersey Shore has thus far been spared the worst of the feared coastal flooding. Widespread minor flooding and beach erosion was reported along the coast, but it did not appear to approach the moderate flood levels that could have more seriously affected property initially forecast for parts of the state.

Still, as the storm lingers, so too will the coastal flood threat. Flooding over several tidal cycles can have a cumulative effect, particularly in the back bays, worsening impacts with each successive high tide, forecasters said.

“It looks like it’s going to be an ongoing issue,” Meola said. “If the low (pressure system) is not going to move, we’ll get that constant onshore flow. We definitely saw some of that with Sandy. The tide would go out but the water was slow to drain out.”

The storm is stuck in place because, more or less, no other part of the atmosphere will have it.

The winds that steer storms across the country, known as the jet stream, have been sluggish and are all but detached from the nor’easter. While typically the storm would slowly drift out to sea, a strong high pressure system to our north is blocking its path, keeping it hovering in place.

“You get into these transitional seasons and sometimes you lose your steering mechanisms,” Robinson said. “That’s part of the problem here.”

Until a storm system manages to slog its way across the country and force it out to sea or it peters out on its own, unfortunately, New Jersey will be stuck with chilly, damp weather.